Wentworth Bexley International Airport
Wentworth Bexley International Airport (/ˈbɛksli/ ''beks-lee''; colloquially known as Bexley Airport or Wentworth Airport; IATA: WBX, ICAO: REWB) is an international airport serving the city of Wentworth, located to the east of the Wentworth city centre in the suburb of Bexley. Opening in 1951 to replace the air force base REAF Base Bexley, it is the primary airport serving Wentworth and is a hub for Enderron Airways, EA Express and AirAsia Enderron. Bexley is the busiest airport in Enderron and Mariana, and the 33rd-busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic, handling 48 million passengers in 2018. History Preliminary studies Until Bexley Airport's opening, Wentworth International Airport (IATA: WEN) was the only major airport serving the Wentworth metropolitan area. This airport had opened in 1927 and had undergone rapid growth in the decades that followed, however the difficult topography and rapidly expanding urban development meant that by the late 1950s Wentworth International was near capacity with little room to expand. At the 1958 election, one of Prime Minister William Oxley's core election promises was the fast-tracking of the process of improving and expanding Wentworth's airport facilities. Bexley Airport had opened to civilian flights in 1951 and was seen as Wentworth's second airport throughout the 1950s. Following the Oxley Government's re-election, a study was launched in November of that year to ascertain the future prospects of Wentworth Airport and investigate the feasibility of expanding Bexley Airport. It found the expansion of Bexley Airport into a full international airport to be the optimal strategy. It also recommended Wentworth Airport not be expanded, as the investment required to allow it to cater for the increasing number of passenger jets as well as improving connections to the Wentworth city centre would likely not be worthwhile. After several years of debate, in 1960 the federal government selected to construct a new terminal and extend the runways of Bexley Airport. The new international terminal was opened on 21 October 1963 by Prime Minister Benjamin Thrailkill, and became the new primary airport of Wentworth. At midnight, Wentworth Airport was officially closed and all remaining operations were transferred to Bexley Airport. 1963–1990 Groundwork began on another expansion in 1966, with construction of Terminal 2 and the runway beginning in 1970 and 1971 respectively. Terminal 2 opened with great fanfare on 9 August 1975, consisting of a single 3048m runway and a passenger terminal with capacity for about 10 million passengers annually. The new terminal also opened with a station (today's Bexley Airport Terminal 1 station) on the Hounslow Line of the Wentworth Metro, with provisions for future metro and heavy rail extensions. In 1982 the runway was extended to 3740m through land reclamation into Hounslow Bay, allowing for fully laden Boeing 747 aircraft to take off, greatly increasing the number of trans-Pacific and European routes that could now serve Bexley. Terminal 1 was renovated and expanded in 1987, increasing passenger capacity to over 35 million passengers annually. 1990 onwards By the mid-1990s Bexley Airport was close to capacity and operations were restricted by the virtue of having a single runway. After exploring a variety of options, the government decided to reclaim land to the north and west of Bexley to construct a second runway, which opened in April 1996. A new control tower was was opened in February the same year as the original 1960s facility was unable sufficiently handle a second runway. This was complemented with the construction of T3, opening in 2002. By the late 2000s the booming low-cost aviation sector in the Asia-Pacific placed significant stress on Bexley, and the now-outdated Terminal 2's facilities were inadequate for the number of passengers it was handling. A decision was made to expand Terminal 1, followed by the demolition and reconstruction of Terminal 2 to be fully integrated into Terminal 1. In 2015 the new enlarged Terminal 1 complex opened, with all low-cost carriers relocated to Terminal 3. The opening of the new terminals coincided with the opening of a new high-speed rail line dubbed AirportLink, connecting Terminal 1 to Shinjuku HSR station in under 20 minutes. Airlines and destinations